Buca di Ripetta

Pastor Dave Hodgdon of Rome Baptist Church has a gift for using apt illustrations in his sermons, which are direct and scripturally sound. We all enjoy going to church there. At the close of every service guests are invited to stand up and say where they're from. We've seen visitors from Nairobi (who brought greetings from his Baptist church there), Australia, Panama, Germany and various U.S. cities. Last week there were two architectural students from Penn State (are you reading this Greg Berzinsky?). Here in Rome, where we all feel like foreigners, we can worship together as one body of believers. Afterward we went to a restaurant (named above) recommended by an unusal guidebook called "City Secrets." All except Stephen tried the octopus. At the end of our meal we began speaking with the couple at the next table, who were there to celebrate their 36th anniversary. More rain thwarted our plans to walk to Capitoline Hill, so we came home instead to find that a cat had crawled through our window and according to Stephen, was "eating the parmesan cheese!" Carter began practicing his cello at about 5 p.m. Ten minutes into the practice, the neighbors began banging on the wall. This we found odd, because of all the noises we make here, cello music would seem to be the least offensive. Also, these neighbors tend to shout, listen to music, play the piano and do all sorts of other wide-awake activities very late into the night. Carter tried again today without incident. Perhaps he'll have to avoid practicing on the weekends, which will simply break his heart (just kidding).